Éamon Ó Cuív (Galway West, Fianna Fail)
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129. To ask the Minister for Finance the progress made to date in controlling spiralling insurance costs; the average increase in insurance costs in each of the years 2010 to 2018 and to date in 2019; the proposed further steps to be taken in 2020 to deal with this issue; and if he will make a statement on the matter. [42214/19]

Paschal Donohoe (Dublin Central, Fine Gael)
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At the outset, it is important to note that as Minister for Finance, I am responsible for the development of the legal framework governing financial regulation and my Department does not collect or publish the type of information being sought by the Deputy. However, the Central Statistics Office, does track the cost of insurance to consumers as part of the Consumer Price Index (CPI).

My officials advise me that the CPI statistics include price indices for certain types of insurance, such as health insurance, insurance related to a dwelling (property insurance), and motor insurance. They would note however that it would be difficult to determine a meaningful figure for the increase or decrease in overall insurance costs as each type of insurance may not necessarily reflect an overall average figure. However, with regard to the types of insurance with which I have policy responsibility for, I understand that the overall increase as per CSO data over the period requested for motor insurance is approximately 22.5% and for property insurance is approximately 19%. The Deputy will appreciate that for motor insurance, this doesn’t reflect the fact that prices fell in the early part of the decade, increased substantially between 2013 and 2016, and have since fallen 24% from their peak. With regard to the figures for motor insurance between 2018 and 2019, the cost of motor insurance has decreased by 8.3% and the cost of property insurance has increased by 2.6%. I would note however that insurance costs to businesses are not tracked through the CPI index therefore it is not possible to provide information on employer and public liability insurance.

Notwithstanding the limitations of the figures above, it is widely recognised that there have been issues around the cost and availability of insurance in more recent years, particularly with regard to motor, and employer and public liability insurance. This is why the Government established the Cost of Insurance Working Group in 2016. It has produced two reports, the Cost of Motor Insurance Reportand the Cost of Employer and Public Liability Insurance Report,and is continuing to work to implement the recommendations of each report. Its most recent Progress Update was published in July and shows that the vast majority of recommendations and actions due by Q2 2019 have been completed. Going forward, there are some further measures that will be carried out by Government over the next few months and into 2020. These include the following:

- Commencement of the remaining parts of the Judicial Council Act 2019, which provides for the establishment of a Personal Injuries Guidelines Committee. It is now matter for the Judiciary to put in place the Judicial Council and to operationalise the Personal Injuries Guidelines Committee, which will introduce new guidelines to replace the Book of Quantum; this is an essential step if award levels are to be reduced.

- The completion of the Central Bank’s feasibility study into adding Employer and Public Liability insurance to the National Claims Information Database (NCID). In addition, the first report of the NCID, on motor insurance, is due by the end of the year;

- The completion of the CSO’s feasibility study into tracking the cost of business insurance, as it does with other forms of insurance including motor. The CSO is due to report back to my Department by the end of the year;

- The Law Reform Commission’s work to undertake a detailed analysis of the possibility of developing constitutionally sound legislation to delimit or cap the amounts of damages which a court may award in respect of some or all categories of personal injuries. It is expected that there will be a public consultation on this by the end of the year; and,

- The furtherance of measures necessary to implement Pre-Action Protocols (PAPs) for personal injury cases, beginning with medical negligence cases.

Finally, as mentioned above in the context of the commencement of the Judicial Council Act 2019, it is recognised that the single most essential challenge to be addressed, if we are to overcome issues regarding the cost and availability of insurance, is a sustainable reduction in insurance costs, in particular award levels. In this regard, this Act provides for the establishment of a Personal Injuries Guidelines Committee upon the formal establishment of the Judicial Council. This Committee is tasked with introducing new guidelines to replace the Book of Quantum. While the Government cannot interfere in their deliberations, I would hope that the Judiciary will recognise the importance of this issue and prioritise it accordingly.